Slop is Killing the Open Web

- Gemini Edition

- [Over at Tux Machines...](https://techrights.org/n/2026/10/27/Over_at_Tux_Machines.shtml "previous")

- [Volunteers or Unpaid Developers Won't Bother Interacting With Mindless LLMs That Pass Labour From Lazy Companies to Human Beings](https://techrights.org/n/2026/10/27/Volunteers_or_Unpaid_Developers_Won_t_Bother_Interacting_With_M.shtml "next")

Slop is Killing the Open Web

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Oct 27, 2026

_**Not** every site has unlimited bandwidth_

10 hours ago by Jamie Zawinski (JWZ):

![Image 3: This piece of shit keeps showing up in my eBay searches for old DNA Lounge flyers: they are taking dates and venues on which actual concerts happened in history and having the Plagiarism Machine vomit out new, terrible posters for them. ](https://techrights.org/i/2026/10/slopfest.png)

Over the past 6 months or so I've been publishing many blog posts in my personal site, where the blog is 22+ years old. I have been having problems, however, with slop scrapers. They are taking up so much bandwidth that it's incurring extra costs on top of an otherwise-cheap arrangement. I've been with the same webhost (and this arrangement) for about 23 years, the fees are laughably small, but if the bots make up the majority of site traffic, then I can exceed modest limits.

Some weeks ago JWZ expressed similar concerns. He used strong language, as usual (that's his communication style even when he sends me E-mails), and he said that due to the slop mania his hosting bills went through the roof (talking about his own site and DNA Lounge).

I can't wait for the slop frenzy to end and for the companies that operate these sinister bots (scrapers) to go under and offload the hardware on the cheap (this would ease the RAM/storage crisis).

For the time being I've mostly stopped blogging in my personal site to avoid exceeding bandwidth quotas, but there's no guarantee this would work.

I'll never put JavaScript walls (or outsource to a spying CDN like Clownflare) to obstruct bots, but I can understand and almost relate to people who do. The Web is a jungle and "open sites" (without restrictions or walls) are exposed to the 'feeding frenzy' of reckless plagiarists who call their "theft" something like "super intelligence" or "training". █

- [Over at Tux Machines...](https://techrights.org/n/2026/10/27/Over_at_Tux_Machines.shtml "previous")

Other Recent Techrights' Posts

Gemini Links 28/10/2026: BaseFree Numerical System, Tolino Vision 2, and MoreLinks for the dayIntercontinental Brigading - Part XVIII - Microsoft is Not the Victim (It Was Never the Victim), It's Just DARVO"DARVO is now in the dictionary. That’s a win for abuse survivors"Intercontinental Brigading - Part XVII - The Relevance of Silent Layoffs at Microsoft"Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act: strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs)"The Cyber Show on Plagiarism (BS Artists) and Fear of GNU/Linux UsersTake a look at these articles"EVENTS" as Paid Spam (Marketing) at The Register MSNow that layoffs are "buyouts" and debt is "credit" (or "investment" in slop) why not call spam "event"?Just JealousLLMs vs DevelopersThe Need for Operating System Kernels That Forbid LLM SlopNot even OpenBSD is an alternative to Linux slopLinks 27/10/2026: "Why My Dad Didn’t Have a Cell Phone" and Sudan Famine RiskLinks for the day[Links 27/10/2026: Google Increases Spying on Online Everything (Personal Files, Mail), Anthropic Takes Its Losses and Debt Public](https://techrights.org/n/2026/10/27/Links_27_10_2026_Google_Increases_Spying_on_Online_Everything_P.shtml)Links for the dayThe British Economy Too Dependent on an American Slop SchemeUnited States Government debt will soon eclipse 40.5 trillion dollarsWe've Already Begun Work on the 20th Year of TechrightsWe'll do a yearlong endeavour of improvement instead of a one-day hurrah[Volunteers or Unpaid Developers Won't Bother Interacting With Mindless LLMs That Pass Labour From Lazy Companies to Human Beings](https://techrights.org/n/2026/10/27/Volunteers_or_Unpaid_Developers_Won_t_Bother_Interacting_With_M.shtml)The people who run Debian are killing the will to do Free softwareSlop is Killing the Open WebThe Web is a jungle and "open sites" (without restrictions or walls) are exposed to the 'feeding frenzy' of reckless plagiarists who call their "theft" something like "super intelligence" or "training"Over at Tux Machines...GNU/Linux news for the past dayIRC Proceedings: Monday, October 26, 2026IRC logs for Monday, October 26, 2026As Microsoft Tells Close to 30% of Its Staff to Leave IBM Takes NotesIBM does the same with PIPsIt's Perfectly Possible That Microsoft Has Just Told Most of Its American Workers to LeaveA better news headline might focus on the US and give a figure like 50%, not "quarter"Richard Stallman Was Right About "Hey Hi"Now the chicken come home to roostGemini Links 27/10/2026: "To Change or Not To Change?" and "Initial Planner Plans"Links for the day[Intercontinental Brigading - Part XVI - The Faustian Pact That Irritates Hired Guns is Still a Distraction From the Serious Harm Done by Their Clients to GNU/Linux Users (Notably Plagiarism and Back Doors)](https://techrights.org/n/2026/10/26/Intercontinental_Brigading_Part_XVI_The_Faustian_Pact_That_Irri.shtml)We'd rather talk about the harms caused[Links 26/10/2026: Microsoft Chaffbot "Building Detailed Psychological Profiles of Its Users", Man Executed for Childhood Offenses](https://techrights.org/n/2026/10/26/Links_26_10_2026_Microsoft_Chaffbot_Building_Detailed_Psycholog.shtml)Links for the dayGemini Links 26/10/2026: Writing Down Dreams and "Sabbath as Resistance"Links for the day[The Register MS Gets Rid of Disclosures About Paid-for Spam Regarding "AI", It Also Composes Fake News for the Sponsors](https://techrights.org/n/2026/10/26/The_Register_MS_Gets_Rid_of_Disclosures_About_Paid_for_Spam_Reg.shtml)Selling away its credibility is known as "Sellout"[Microsoft 'Buyouts' Sound Just Like 60,000 Layoffs of 'Expensive' or More Experienced Staff ('Soft' Layoffs or Even Worse, Negligible Severance)](https://techrights.org/n/2026/10/26/Microsoft_Buyouts_Sound_Just_Like_60_000_Layoffs_of_Expensive_o.shtml)This is not a "gift" to staff, it's just a pink slip with a hundred dollar bill attached to itThis is How Microsoft Ends (Over a Quarter of the Company Now on the Chopping Block)Microsoft has quit pretendingSearch Without Encryption for Legacy Systems (Permacomputing) and Full Backward CompatibilityAt your own riskShift to the Lula (Left)Lula is a friend of Free software and ODFMore Stories and Material Than We Can PublishWe're gaining or have amassed material faster than we manage to publishEuropean Patent Office Takes From the Poor to Give More to the RichThe "pension schemes are overfunded at 120.5%"Intercontinental Brigading - Part XV - Annualised Consequences for Opposing Microsoft Back Doors in Linux Since 2012a roundup of what we got from GGGLinks 26/10/2026: China’s Communist Party Plenum and Aleksandar Vucic Concedes DefeatLinks for the dayIn Reporting, Timing is EverythingIf you keep calling people "paedophiles" when you yourself are connected to paedophiles (or are a paedophile), you're attracting a lot of unwanted attention to yourselfLinks 25/10/2026: Microsoft Layoffs and Cuts, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva Wins ElectionLinks for the dayGemini Links 26/10/2026: Brazilian Politics and Leaving Bear BlogLinks for the dayOver at Tux Machines...GNU/Linux news for the past dayIRC Proceedings: Sunday, October 25, 2026IRC logs for Sunday, October 25, 2026Another Form of Microsoft Silent Layoffs: Workers That 'Expire'When the media becomes a lapdog, not a watchdog, false narratives gain tractionCarte Blanche for GPL Violations 4 Days Ago (by Torvalds)Slop disclosure is no longer required for the Linux KernelThere Are No Women That Are Kernel Developers Sent by Corporations Which Claim to Champion DiversityAs noted the other daySites with "Linux" in Their Name Cannot Slop and Retain Readersif they write about "linux "(or "Linux") using LLMs they will be caught, then shunnedAt Microsoft, the Silent Layoffs Impact Executives AlsoMicrosoft hid the real story of Helen ChiangLinus Torvalds Defected to EnshittificationLinus Torvalds is betraying a generation of high(er) standards[Links 25/10/2026: TMZ Revisits Epstein's Connections to Bill Epsteingate, "Italy Hit by New Cost of Living Protests"](https://techrights.org/n/2026/10/25/Links_25_10_2026_TMZ_Revisits_Epstein_s_Connections_to_Bill_Eps.shtml)Links for the dayMicrosoft’s Spin About Mass Layoffs and Shutdowns: They "Never Should Have Existed"Microsoft-sponsored spinIt's SlopMaybe we'll exclude It's Slop from our curation. It's a Linux Foundation outpost of sorts, an apologist of sloppy code and plagiarism.[Intercontinental Brigading - Part XIV - Six Years of Learning Irish, But the Real Issue Was Microsoft-controlled 'Secure' (Restricted) Boot](https://techrights.org/n/2026/10/25/Intercontinental_Brigading_Part_XIV_Six_Years_of_Learning_Irish.shtml)Had I not opposed back doors in Linux, not of this would come aboutGemini Links 25/10/2026: Moana (2026) and OpenBSD UpdatesLinks for the dayThe Netherlands Fast to Adopt GNU/Linux, "Market Share" Rises to Two-Digit Value (on Desktops/Laptops)It peaked at around 20% yesterdayDST Still Needs to Get AbolishedGet rid of DST, efficiency will improve and systems will become more reliablePHP2Shell as Paid-for FUD Campaign (Intended to Help Sell Slop and Fake "Market Value" of Slop Pushers)PHP2Shell considered overhyped [...] Remember all the paid-for hype regarding Mythos? What happened to all that?Microsoft Sort of Tried to Sell XBox Piecewise (Offloading Microsoft)XBox is in a morbid stateOver at Tux Machines...GNU/Linux news for the past dayIRC Proceedings: Saturday, October 24, 2026IRC logs for Saturday, October 24, 2026

- [Over at Tux Machines...](https://techrights.org/n/2026/10/27/Over_at_Tux_Machines.shtml "previous")

- Home

- About

- IRC

- Search

- Feed